The Infant System For Developing the Intellectual and Moral Powers of all Children, from One to Seven years of Age — Reading Companion

RETROSPECT OF MY CAREER.

_Days and scenes of childhood--Parental care--Power of early impressions--School experience--Commencements in business--Sunday school teaching and its results--Experiment on a large scale--Development of means and invention of implements--Heavy bereavement--Propagation of the system of education in the neighbourhood of London, and ultimately in most of the principal places in England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland--Misapprehension and perversion of the principles of infant education--Signs of advancement--Hope for the future_

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.

_Teachers of theft--Children the dupes of the profligate--An effort at detection--Afflicting cases of early depravity--Progress of a young delinquent--Children employed in theft by their parents--Ingenuity of juvenile thieves--Results of an early tuition in crime--The juvenile thief incorrigible--Facility of disposing of stolen property--A hardened child--Parents robbed by their children--A youthful suicide--A youthful murderer_

CAUSES OF EARLY CRIME.

_Degraded condition of parents--Dreadful effects of drunkenness--Neglect of children inevitable and wilful--The tutorship of wicked companions--Tricks of pantomines injurious--Mischiefs arising from sending children to pawnbrokers--Fairs demoralizing--All kinds of begging to be repressed_

REMEDY FOR EXISTING EVILS.

_Means long in operation important--Prisons awfully corrupting--Deplorable condition of those released from jail--Education of the infant poor--Its beneficial results--Cases of inviolable honesty--Appeal of Mr. Serjeant Bosanquet--The infant school an asylum from accident and a prevention of various evils--Obstacles in the way of married persons obtaining employment--Arguments for the plan of infant training--Prevalence of profane swearing--The example often shewn by parents--Anecdote in illustration--Parents ill used by their young children--Christian-like wish of George III.--Education for poor children still objected to--Folly of such objection illustrated--Lectures on the subject of infant training_

PRINCIPLES OF INFANT EDUCATION.

_Moral treatment--Importance of exercise--Play-ground indispensable--The education of nature and human education should be joined--Mental development--Children should think for themselves--Intellectual food adapted for children--A spirit of enquiry should be excited--Gradual development of the young mind--Neglect of moral treatment--Inefficacy of maxims learned by rote--Influence of love--The play-ground a field of observation--Respect of private property inculcated--Force of conscience on the alert--Anecdote--Advantages of a strict regard for truth--The simple truths of the Bible fit for children_

REQUISITES FOR AN INFANT SCHOOL.

_The master and mistress should reside on the premises--Interior arrangements--A school and its furniture--Lesson-posts and lessons--The younger children should not be separated from the older--Play-ground arrangements--Rotary swing--Its management and advantages_

QUALIFICATIONS FOR TEACHERS.

_Teachers should practice what they teach--Necessity of patience--Mere automatons will not do for infant teachers--Disadvantage of using excessive restraint--A master and mistress more efficient than two mistresses--Objections to the sole government of females--Too frequent use of the divine names should be avoided--General observations_

HINTS FOR CONDUCTING AN INFANT SCHOOL.

_Classification--Getting the children into order--Language--Lessons on objects--Rules to be observed by parents--Daily routine of instruction--Opening prayer and hymn--Object or developing lessons--Synopsis of a week's instruction--Cleanliness--Never frighten children--Guard against forgetfulness--Observe punctuality--Be strictly accurate in your expressions--Guard against the entrance of disease--Maxims for teachers--Resolutions_

GALLERY TEACHING.--MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

_Original intention of the gallery--What lessons are adapted for it--Its misapplication--Selection of teachers--Observations--Gallery lessons--on a feather--a spider--a piece of bog turf--a piece of coal--Observations on the preceding lessons--Scripture lessons in the gallery--The finding of Moses--Christ with the doctors--Moral training--Its neglect in most schools--Should be commenced in infancy--Beneficial effects of real moral culture--Ignorance of teachers--The gallery most useful in moral training--Specimen of a moral lesson--Illustrations of moral culture--Anecdotes--Simpson on moral education--Observations--Hints to teachers_

REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS.

_Necessity of some punishment--Rewards to monitors--Trial by jury--Illustrative case--Necessity of firmness--Anecdotes--Playing the truant--Its evils--Means for prevention--Devices for punishment--Sympathy encouraged--Evil of expelling children--Case of Hartley--Difficulty of legislating for rewards and punishments--Badges of distinction not necessary_

_Means for conveying instruction--Method of teaching the alphabet in connection with objects--Spelling--Reading--Developing lessons--Reading lessons in natural history--The arithmeticon--Brass letters--Their uses_

_The arithmeticon--How applied--Numeration--Addition--Subtraction --Multiplication--Division--Fractions--Arithmetical tables--Arithmetical songs--Observations_

FORM, POSITION, AND SIZE.

_Method of instruction--Geometrical song--Anecdotes--Size--Long measure--Observations_

_Its attraction for children--Sacred geography--Geographical song--Lessons on geography_

PICTURES AND CONVERSATIONS.

_Pictures--Religious instruction--Specimens of picture lessons on Scripture and natural history--Other means of religious instruction--Effects of religious instruction--Observations_

ON TEACHING BY OBJECTS.

_Object boards--Utility of this method_

_Exercise--Various positions--Exercise blended with instruction Arithmetical and geometrical amusements_

_Infant ditties--Songs on natural history--Moral lessons in verse--Influence of music in softening the feelings--Illustrative anecdote_

_Method of instruction--Grammatical rhymes_

_Method Explained--Its success_

_National schools--British and foreign societies--Sunday schools--Observations_

HINTS ON NURSERY EDUCATION.

_Introduction to botany--First lessons in natural history--First truths of astronomy--Geographical instruction--Conclusion_

RETROSPECT OF MY CAREER.

_Days and scenes of childhood--Parental care--Power of early impressions--School experience--Commencement in business--Sunday-school teaching and its results--Experiment on a large scale--Development of plans and invention of implements--Heavy bereavement--Propagation of the system of education, in the neighborhood of London, and ultimately in most of the principal places in England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland--Misapprehension and perversion of the principles of infant education--Signs of advancement--Hope for the future_.

Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days; The scene is touching."--_Cowper_